But as important as those developments were to the IT world, the stories that had the most resonance with Ars readers were the ones about technology actually doing what it was supposed to do, or about the technology industry giving the people what they wanted. At the top of that list was the return of the Windows Start button.

One Microsoft way?

When Windows 8 was released in October of 2012, it received mixed reviews, with Ars Microsoft Editor Peter Bright calling it "a study in compromises." People tend to fear change, and lots of folks were still hungry for ways to make the new operating system work more like Windows 7. So when we got an early look at the revised "Windows Blue" interface for the first major revision of Windows 8—and the return of the Start button—it was a hint that Microsoft had listened to the most frequent complaint about the usability of the Windows 8 interface.

As it turned out, that wasn't the only thing that had changed in Windows 8.1. While the update was still far from perfect, Peter Bright wrote in his review in October, "In many ways, I think Windows 8.1 is what Microsoft should have released instead of 8.0. With the more complete touch interface and the greater concessions to desktop users, Windows 8.1 makes Microsoft's case—that one operating system really can do it all—much more convincingly than Windows 8 did. Whatever kind of computing devices you use, Windows 8.1 will fit the needs of those devices better than Windows 8."

Linux rules the waves

Enlarge/ The USS Zumwalt getting a coat of paint at Bath Iron Works. The ship is exotic in many ways, but she runs on off-the-shelf computing technology and Linux.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works

While Windows 8's launch last year had been proclaimed as a huge opportunity for Linux, there wasn't exactly a stampede away from Microsoft's OS on desktops and notebooks. That's not from a lack of evangelism and effort, though: as Jon Brodkin reported in August, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth is still shoveling millions of his own dollars into Canonical and Ubuntu to keep them going.

However, Linux is getting plenty of traction on desktops of another sort—the sort that shoots guns and missiles. The US Navy has been using Linux in many of its systems for the past four years, but a new ship joining the fleet is practically powered stem to stern by Linux—the USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000. The all-electric ship's systems are all controlled through a combination of embedded real-time Linux clients, Red Hat Linux servers, and messaging middleware.

The Zumwalt's servers are off-the-shelf blade servers loaded into self-contained miniature data centers called Electronic Modular Enclosures—all integrated and tested ashore before being installed during the ship's construction. That shaves some much-needed cost off of her multi-billion dollar price tag and will shrink the delivery cost of the two other ships of the class that will follow it.

While Linux has long since established open source software's beachhead in most data centers, 2013 saw open source hardware in various forms starting to stake claims all over the enterprise. While the "open source" of these hardware platforms may not necessarily include their CPUs, they use commodity components in open designs anyone can manufacture.

The Facebook-led Open Compute Project has already changed how the social networking company buys and builds its own servers and data centers, and it's trickling down to other companies. We went on a tour of Facebook's hardware lab in June and saw how Facebook's open approach (which in many ways mirrors Google's own somewhat more closed internal hardware effort) could change not just data centers, but large-scale computing and networking as a whole.

Transitioning from big computers to tiny, the Raspberry Pi celebrated its first birthday earlier this year. To mark the occasion, Ars Senior IT Reporter Jon Brodkin interviewed Mike Thompson and Peter Green, the two volunteer developers behind Raspbian, the "official" Pi operating system. Based on Debian, Raspbian's development required 60-hour work weeks, a home-built cluster of ARM computers, and the rebuilding of 19,000 Linux software packages.

While 2013 was in many ways the year of the Raspberry Pi, the Arduino may still be the king of single-board computers. We highlighted 11 amazing projects technology enthusiasts completed using the aging-but-still-awesome open hardware microcontrollers. Arduino boards have flown to outer space, powered Daleks and other robots, killed mosquitoes, lived inside electronic underwear, helped blind people navigate their surroundings, and much more. The controllers have also been used in some projects that people in their right minds probably shouldn't try—like the Arduino-powered flame throwing jack-o'-lantern. It didn't kill its creator, but you may not be so lucky.

Enlarge/ Ars' Sean Gallagher used an Arduino Uno to create a BearDuino—a hardware-hacked Teddy Ruxpin that lip-syncs to computer speech with horrifying results.

Technological feats

While the servers aboard the USS Zumwalt are built to take a lot of abuse, they have a high bar to clear to match the reliability of a certain Intel 386 server running NetWare 3.12 that was finally put out to pasture this year. Few servers will ever achieve that machine's epic uptime: 6030 days, 5 hours, 21 minutes (about sixteen-and-a-half years). The server had been running since September 23, 1996.

But even across all those many years, it's doubtful the server's two 800MB hard drives handled even a fraction of the data that passes through one man's home data center. In March, a California man found the limits of Verizon FiOS' "unlimited" data by averaging over 50 terabytes of traffic per month—peaking out at over 77TB of data in March.

The FiOS customer, who goes by the handle "houkouonchi" on DSLReports.com, told Ars that he had a rack of seven servers with 209TB of raw storage in his house with which he runs his own "friends-and-family" VPN, streams video, and shares files.

FiOS, of course, determined that his usage violated the company's terms of service. The last we heard from houkouonchi, he wasn't even sure if Verizon's business plan for FiOS would allow him to keep running that load.

What I'd really like to see is an Open Printer project. I'm so sick and tired of printers not living up their advertised print capacity on cartridges of ink. Let's see an open printer project with free drivers, free licensing of the technology to any manufacturer, components you can switch out for using specialty inks, etc. And most of all, ink cartridges that last and last. Surely the off-patent technology exists to do this? And if it's a matter of buying up a few patents, that's what Kickstarter is for.

There is something ultimately frustrating about the 8.1 start button. I don't actually have the time to craft the words that would be necessary to capture the subtlety of the corporate response that resulted in the useless button being placed there. It really is a slap in the face.

People gave GOOD reasons to leave it there, for the desktop users. To both listen on the surface and yet ignore the REASONS!!?? It really encapsulates what I've always hated about Microsoft. It takes something that was bad (why remove it at all, so long as you're leaving the desktop???) and makes it so much more insulting and frustrating.

EDIT: It's the same frustration that always results from failures to communicate when there is really no actual barrier to understanding except that the other party DOESN'T WANT TO LISTEN OR CARE.

EDIT2: It really is the communication failure that is so frustrating about this. Why pretend to listen? Who are they fooling? I just really really don't get it. I didn't get removing the button in the first place. But putting it back, kinda sorta, just really floors me. I mean, literally, if an individual were to do a similar thing in their individual lives, people around them would probably question the sanity of the individual. In this case, I question the sanity of that organization.

EDIT3: They made the same mistake twice. That's what it is. And as for all these edits of a Windows critique on a Linux article, well, I apologize.

The Start Button is hardly the worst thing about Windows 8.1. Skydrive takes that honour. With it, Microsoft has taken a rather huge "my way or the highway" approach.

In a nutshell, if you want to use Skydrive, starting in Windows 8.1 you absolutely MUST log into your computer with a Microsoft Live account. The OS automatically uninstalls the Windows Vista-8 Desktop version and prevents reinstallation. If you decided to use a local account, you're out of luck with Skydrive unless you decide to link it to a live account.

Don't care about Skydrive? Fair enough. Maybe you like some of Microsoft's other products, like Skype. It's only a matter of time before other products start down the same path. They've killed once. They have a taste for meat now.

Don't care about Skydrive? Fair enough. Maybe you like some of Microsoft's other products, like Skype. It's only a matter of time before other products start down the same path. They've killed once. They have a taste for meat now.

The day I have to use a Microsoft live account to log into my home PC is the day I stop using Windows.

I wonder if "Linux everywhere" will end (not that I want it to) as more proprietary-friendly options become more viable (the PlayStation 4 uses FreeBSD) as big companies try to get away from the licence they never seem to properly respect, the GPLv2. It seems that Android OEMs always seem to show the source code late (its supposed to be shown right away to any requesters who have the binary version) or just broken on its own; especially the smaller OEMs!

Don't care about Skydrive? Fair enough. Maybe you like some of Microsoft's other products, like Skype. It's only a matter of time before other products start down the same path. They've killed once. They have a taste for meat now.

The day I have to use a Microsoft live account to log into my home PC is the day I stop using Windows.

The day I have to use a Steam account to log into my gaming PC is the day I stop using SteamOS.

The day I have to use an iTunes account to make my iWhatever useful is the day I stop using iOS.

We could go on... so far the worst I've seen is Kindle, which not only requires an Amazon account to get past the setup screens, but requires a credit card number set up for oneclick to download free stuff. This cat's been out of the bag for years.

The day I have to use a Steam account to log into my gaming PC is the day I stop using SteamOS.

The day I have to use an iTunes account to make my iWhatever useful is the day I stop using iOS.

We could go on... so far the worst I've seen is Kindle, which not only requires an Amazon account to get past the setup screens, but requires a credit card number set up for oneclick to download free stuff. This cat's been out of the bag for years.

Steam is a service that is effectively a DRM wrapper for games. SteamOS, more or less the same except with somewhat loftier goals in terms of hardware.

iTunes and Amazon are content delivery services. I can choose not to own an iPad or a Kindle.

You could say the same about Microsoft, but I've been invested in the Windows world for something like two decades now. This isn't how it started. It's how they're pushing things so that they can be like Rich Uncle Apple, Except that they're taking it a step further. I can avoid signing in with Apple, or Android or Linux cloud accounts. I can avoid it with MS too. The point is that they took a product that I actively use, Skydrive, and tried to use it to leverage me into signing in with their cloud account in their newest version of Windows.

Don't care about Skydrive? Fair enough. Maybe you like some of Microsoft's other products, like Skype. It's only a matter of time before other products start down the same path. They've killed once. They have a taste for meat now.

The day I have to use a Microsoft live account to log into my home PC is the day I stop using Windows.

The day I have to use an iTunes account to make my iWhatever useful is the day I stop using iOS.

You don't have to use an Apple ID to log into your iPhone or iPad. You only have to use it if you wish to purchase software/content and even then you only use it while in the process of purchasing the software/content.

More than a year a year has passed and its with a mix of fascination and horror that I still find myself reading articles about the "missing" or "returned" Start button in tech articles. A real shame in this case because Ars is one of the few places I could find a Windows 8 article that covered new under the hood features. What I can't understand is how you can say that the Start button was missing when we all know that it was there the whole time. In the same corner. With the word Start on it. It did the same thing it does in 8.1. Yes it was off-screen - so no it was not missing. In 8 it is off-screen. In 8.1 it was moved. End of article. Moving it might not have been necessary if it was reported properly.Microsoft should have done a better job explaining it however articles like this seem to mirror the lack of understanding you'd expect from non tech savvy users. Instead of educating the reader it follows the mass hysteria approach and so we're now given a button that takes up a spot on the taskbar instead.Think about it, it was there all along and articles like this continue to mislead the public. I don't see anyone reporting that the Internet Explorer app is missing an address bar. Same thing right? Only difference is that the Start button opens a new Start menu as of 8. Yes this is a full screen menu. No, the future is not drop down menus. I'm sure power users at Windows 95 launch were shunning it and opening their familiar command console. Makes me wonder how we ever moved from booting in to DOS to a GUI interface.I guess no one was telling everyone that Windows 95 is here and they took away MS- DOS.

It's funny, but I can remember very few articles that talked about Windows 95 in a bad way. There's no doubt they existed, but by my recollection the vast majority were glowing. And DOS was still there, just submerged so that everyday users didn't need to fiddle with it.

I hate the start screen because it steals the focus of the entire screen. The start menu had better search and was unobtrusive.

It's funny, but I can remember very few articles that talked about Windows 95 in a bad way. There's no doubt they existed, but by my recollection the vast majority were glowing. And DOS was still there, just submerged so that everyday users didn't need to fiddle with it.

Good point. We've simply come to expect so much more, because software is generally better at all levels. Windows XP was good, and Windows 7 was great. That's no reason to stop evolving and improving, but of course we're going to be pickier.

Personally, I tried moving to Linux on the desktop (with ubuntu) in 2008, but found it way too difficult and unpolished. I tried again (successfully) in 2011 and haven't looked back since. No animosity against Windows or Microsoft; I just believe in the philosophy behind open source, and (not being a gamer or Photoshop user) I'm fully satisfied with ubuntu. The funny thing is that even in 2008, ubuntu was way, way more polished than what we routinely dealt with "back in the days" of DOS and Windows 3.1 (BSOD, IRQ conflicts etc), but my standards had already been raised by XP.

EDIT: By this time, also, most of the low-hanging usability fruit has been picked, so it's harder to make all-positive, easy-to-accept incremental changes. Most changes now are going to be changes in UX paradigm, like touch interfaces, and major UI overhauls. Apple did this early with the leap to OSX, and we're seeing it now with Windows 8 and to some extent Unity. We just saw Gmail do this in 2013, too. It gets people angry, but it's a necessary evil, because the old UIs have been largely "maxed out" in terms of being able to augment usability through incremental changes, and the companies see (with varying clarity) that the way forward requires a major break with the old ways.

"While Windows 8's launch last year had been proclaimed as a huge opportunity for Linux, there wasn't exactly a stampede away from Microsoft's OS on desktops and notebooks"

Actually there is a massive stampede away from windows going on everyday! It's called Android, and it runs on Linux, and it gets more than 1.5 million activations every day! If you don't believe windows is being "left behind", just go into your local movie theater at preview time, go to your local mall, go out in public.. What you will see is people everywhere are carrying Linux in their hand... talking on the phone, participating in social media, surfing the web, and using all the smart phone apps.

Linux is the most prolific operating system on the planet, and the most prolific software ever known to humankind.

As for Steam for Linux, the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds says it's a great thing for Linux on the desktop. I agree with Gabe Newell - the co-founder of Valve - that Linux is the future of gaming.

As for smart choices in Operating Systems for warships. There's a reason the USS Zumwalt is being run with Linux.. I bet you can't guess what Operating System the last generation of war ships ran? I'll give you a hint, it started with w and ended with NT. And it wasn't pretty... In fact it was so bad that the USS_Yorktown_(CG-48), failed - spectacularly, and it had to be towed back to port for software failure.. Go and research it for yourself.. It's an interesting story. But Warships aren't the only ones that switched to Linux. Search for a story entitled "U.S. Navy turns to Linux to run its drone fleet".. and "Air Force Drone Controllers Embrace Linux, But Why?". Interesting stuff.. to say the least.

Besides Linux being the king of Mobile - Linux on the desktop will only rise. Especially since we're set to see Half Life 3 arrive on Linux.. Perhaps the most significant AAA title arriving . And even though Steam OS is based on Debian GNU/Linux, you don't have to install it to run the Linux games. Just install Steam for Linux on your Ubuntu instead.

There's never been a better time for GNU/Linux and Open Source! Get yours on now! Linux is humans-enabled, free yourself and find out!

Oh, and BTW, Thank You for your service Mr. Gallagher! I was in the US Army/82d Abn Div myself.

One project board that seems to have been overlooked by Ars, probably because it is more popular in Asia than USA is the Renesas "Gadget Renesas"Sakura controller board, an Arduino compatible controller, but with some interesting features and nice Android applet.

And, like the Sakura flower, it is "Unapologetically Pink" so take that Jonnie Ive.

The Start Button is hardly the worst thing about Windows 8.1. Skydrive takes that honour. With it, Microsoft has taken a rather huge "my way or the highway" approach.

In a nutshell, if you want to use Skydrive, starting in Windows 8.1 you absolutely MUST log into your computer with a Microsoft Live account. The OS automatically uninstalls the Windows Vista-8 Desktop version and prevents reinstallation. If you decided to use a local account, you're out of luck with Skydrive unless you decide to link it to a live account.

Don't care about Skydrive? Fair enough. Maybe you like some of Microsoft's other products, like Skype. It's only a matter of time before other products start down the same path. They've killed once. They have a taste for meat now.

Framed like this, the changes to SkyDrive integration do seem unnecessary, but, in practice, how much of a difference does it actually make?

If you want to use SkyDrive, you're going to have to log into a Microsoft account, one way or another, regardless of what operating system you're using. If privacy is the concern, there are already plenty of settings that don't require a MS account to activate (SmartScreen, location data, and so on).

What's really missing then? The desktop program's fetch feature? Just feeling more comfortable with having a separate, local set of OS credentials?

Framed like this, the changes to SkyDrive integration do seem unnecessary, but, in practice, how much of a difference does it actually make?

If you want to use SkyDrive, you're going to have to log into a Microsoft account, one way or another, regardless of what operating system you're using. If privacy is the concern, there are already plenty of settings that don't require a MS account to activate (SmartScreen, location data, and so on).

What's really missing then? The desktop program's fetch feature? Just feeling more comfortable with having a separate, local set of OS credentials?

Yes, if I want SkyDrive I will have to log into a Microsoft account. That's not my issue at all. Nor is the fetch feature.

I will not log into my personal local computer with a cloud based account. I don't want / need the integration, and I do consider it a security / privacy risk. Privacy, in particular, since Microsoft has turned people in for content hosted in SkyDrive (not that I have any sympathy for someone with child porn, but it shows that they both can and do have this ability. Maybe tomorrow it'll be something I do sympathize with.).

There's no good reason for this. Every other version of Windows, not to mention OSX, Android, IOS, and various flavors of Linux, don't have this requirement.

Framed like this, the changes to SkyDrive integration do seem unnecessary, but, in practice, how much of a difference does it actually make?

If you want to use SkyDrive, you're going to have to log into a Microsoft account, one way or another, regardless of what operating system you're using. If privacy is the concern, there are already plenty of settings that don't require a MS account to activate (SmartScreen, location data, and so on).

What's really missing then? The desktop program's fetch feature? Just feeling more comfortable with having a separate, local set of OS credentials?

Yes, if I want SkyDrive I will have to log into a Microsoft account. That's not my issue at all. Nor is the fetch feature.

I will not log into my personal local computer with a cloud based account. I don't want / need the integration, and I do consider it a security / privacy risk. Privacy, in particular, since Microsoft has turned people in for content hosted in SkyDrive (not that I have any sympathy for someone with child porn, but it shows that they both can and do have this ability. Maybe tomorrow it'll be something I do sympathize with.).

There's no good reason for this. Every other version of Windows, not to mention OSX, Android, IOS, and various flavors of Linux, don't have this requirement.

Unless you really want that SkyDrive integration (which clearly, you do not), it is by no means required of you to use Windows 8.1, either.

Sean Gallagher / Sean is Ars Technica's IT Editor. A former Navy officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of IT journalism experience, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.